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The First Cut

A strong debut album with some Stevie Wonder, accelerating at times to The Commitments-type power-soul and slowing down to Billy Joel-type piano ballads. If you like soulfully sung, elegant and groovy pop-soul with a pinch of jazz, this album is for you.

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

The Doc alias Timo Heikkinen began writing songs in 2005 on a plane to the US. Soon enough his music raised interest among top professional musicians in his home town of Oulu, Finland. After a couple of demos, The Doc and the Professional Help came together with Aleksi Itkonen on drums, Jouko Isokangas on bass, AP Sipilä on guitar and Olli Tuomainen on saxophones and flute. Timo sings and plays the keys.

Live performances and feedback from enthusiastic live audiences led to a live-DVD-recording, Doc and the Professional Help at Tavastia 2009, at the famous Tavastia Club in Finland. One of the top Finnish music producers, Leri Leskinen, was convinced of the band’s abilities and agreed to produce the band's first CD, The First Cut, with Tommi Vainikainen. Even though Timo wanted to record in Finnish, Leri turned the sledge around and the language was changed to English as he thought that it would suit Timo’s groovy 70’s and 80’s jazzy soul-pop better.

The Doc began recording in June 2010 at Lerin Paja Studios (Helsinki) and finished in September. Timo sung lead vocals and played most of the keys. Tuomo Prättälä played a Rhodes solo, Clavinet and MoniMoog in two songs, "Can’t Reach You" and "Puppy Dog". Tero Lindberg arranged the horn section and played trumpet and flugelhorn. Antti Rissanen on trombone and Heikki Puhto on tenor and baritone saxophone, flute, alto flute and clarinet rounded out the section, and Olli Tuomainen played tenor and soprano saxophone solos at Raddlesnake Mobile Studio in Oulu, recorded by Matti Niemi. Christa Renwall sung the female backing vocals.

The name of the band was shortened to The Doc to make it easier for fans to remember. The name of the album, The First Cut, relates to Timo’s profession. The First Cut is a strong sample of the The Doc's abilities and musicality, not to mention Timo’s soulful, charismatic and expressive voice. The roots for the melodies rise from traditional soul, but the Finnish melancholy expresses itself mostly in the lyrics that describe even heart-breaking events. For example, “Silent Escort” tells a story about the saddest drive of a father and his little daughter under the Finnish midnight sun. Lyrics for “Boy’s Life” are from a poem by the best-selling author, Robert McCammon.

Timo is a kind of a renaissance man. He is a surgeon by profession and has been moderately successful in sports as well. He was in the Finnish Freestyle ski team in his youth, touring the World Cup for some years. In addition he has danced, windsurfed and golfed on a national level. But music has taken a strong grip of his soul and Timo's ambition is now to develop as a singer-songwriter. New music keeps brewing…